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Forward Secrecy & Strict Transport Security

Today we implemented Forward Secrecy in order to improve the security and privacy of HBH. Forward Secrecy "should" make it "impossible" to eavesdrop on data being transmitted from your browser to HBH's servers. We also have Strict Transport Security enabled.

Ranking System Changes

Since the points reset, We have had a lot of complaints about administrators being in the top ten on the rankings page. The current Admin staff have been here for a while and had already completed the challenges BUT to keep everyone happy, Administrators will no longer be included in the points rankings and will be unranked in their profiles.

Changes to HBH

All Members Read This!

There has been a few changes to HBH over the past few weeks. Here are a list of changes and some reason why:

We have removed the old database tables and reset the points. This is due to old and corrupted accounts and no way for other members to get on the score board, Points cannot and will not be reinstated. We have also removed user accounts that haven\'t logged in in over a year.

We have two new staff members Euforia33 & rex_mundi they have been a great help to HBH over the years!

We also have improved the forum and replaced some old code which should make things faster.

Experts Found a Unicorn in the Heart of Android

The targets for this kind of attack can be anyone from Prime ministers, govt. officials, company executives, security officers to IT managers
Built on tens of gigabytes of source code from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), the leading smartphone operating system carries a scary code in its heart. Named Stagefright, it is a media library that processes several popular media formats. Since media processing is often time-sensitive, the library is implemented in native code (C++) that is more prone to memory corruption than memory-safe languages like Java.

Zimperium zLabs VP of Platform Research and Exploitation, Joshua J. Drake (@jduck), dived into the deepest corners of Android code and discovered what we believe to be the worst Android vulnerabilities discovered to date. These issues in Stagefright code critically expose 95% of Android devices, an estimated 950 million devices. Drakes research, to be presented at Black Hat USA on August 5 and DEF CON 23 on August 7 found multiple remote code execution vulnerabilities that can be exploited using various methods, the worst of which requires no user-interaction.

Attackers only need your mobile number, using which they can remotely execute code via a specially crafted media file delivered via MMS. A fully weaponized successful attack could even delete the message before you see it. You will only see the notification. These vulnerabilities are extremely dangerous because they do not require that the victim take any action to be exploited. Unlike spear-phishing, where the victim needs to open a PDF file or a link sent by the attacker, this vulnerability can be triggered while you sleeep. Before you wake up, the attacker will remove any signs of the device being compromised and you will continue your day as usual – with a trojaned phone.

WhatsApp faces UK ban within weeks

The popular app is facing a total UK ban as new laws being rushed through would stop people sending any form of encrypted messages.

WhatsApp, iMessage and Snapchat currently scramble communications between users and if they dont conform they will face a ban.

Speaking earlier this year David Cameron warned: In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which we cannot read?

My answer to that question is no we must not.

If I am Prime Minister, I will make sure it is a comprehensive piece of legislation that makes sure we do not allow terrorist safe spaces to communicate with each other.

And the controversial law, nicknamed the snoopers charter, could be in place by the Autumn.

Home Secretary Theresa May, has warned that the Government will push the legislation through – with the recent terrorist atrocities in Tunisia and France forcing the government to act quickly.

The laws would mean online services such as WhatsApp, Google, Facebook and Apple would be forced to hand over messages, sent by users, to government security agencies such as MI5.

It is currently unclear what the full extent of the powers will be, however many are already condemning the bill.

Executive director of The Open Rights Group Jim Killock told the BBC... The government is signalling that it wants to press ahead with increased powers of data collection and retention for the police and GCHQ, spying on everyone, whether suspected of a crime or not.

This is the return of the snoopers charter, even as the ability to collect and retain data gets less and less workable.

And Liberty, which campaigns for civil liberties and human rights in the UK added...We take no issue with the use of intrusive surveillance powers per se - targeted surveillance can play an important part in preventing and detecting serious crime.

But the current regime just does not provide sufficient safeguards to ensure that such surveillance is conducted lawfully, and in a necessary and proportionate way.

VPNs will not protect you from state spooks or cyber crooks

Fresh research has cast further doubt on the ability of virtual private networks (VPNs) to protect users privacy from intelligence agencies and criminal hackers.
VPNs are secure lines of communication that set up a private network between devices across public networks. They protect users privacy by setting up an encrypted tunnel between the device being used and the VPN providers servers when accessing online services, in theory making it more difficult for hackers to siphon or steal data mid-transit. You can download a VPN as a browser extension if you want to make it harder for others to see what youre looking at on the web.

The research was published by Queen Mary University in London, in a paper titled A Glance Through the VPN Looking Glass: IPv6 Leakage and DNS Hijacking in Commercial VPN Clients.